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Academy Award Nominee for Documentary Short Subject Coproduced by Ithaca College Alum

ITHACA, NY — “Kings Point,” an Academy Award nominee in the category of Documentary Short Subject, was coproduced by Susannah Ludwig, a 1993 graduate of Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications.

The film tells the stories of five seniors living in a typical American retirement resort — men and women who came to Florida decades ago with their spouses by their sides and their health intact, who now find themselves grappling with love, loss and the universal desire for human connection. It has already earned numerous awards on the documentary film festival circuit.

Recognized by the Sundance Institute as a “visionary independent producer,” Ludwig is the cofounder of Snapdragon Films, a production company that unites extensive experience in advertising with a rich passion for documentary filmmaking. She earned her degree from IC in television-radio.

The search for truth has inspired all of Ludwig’s work, and she has chosen her projects by looking for stories that really matter — from the immigrant experience to a daughter coping with her mother’s mental illness to creative minds at work. She cocreated and executive produced the docu-series “Boomtown,” about the effects of oil discovery on a small town in North Dakota, for Planet Green/Discovery Channel. Other works have included “Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas)” for PBS, “My Mother’s Garden” for MSNBC and “Close Up: Photographers at Work” for Ovation.

In 2006, Ludwig returned to the Ithaca College campus to meet with communications students and host a screening of her documentary “Stolen,” about the largest unsolved art heist in American history.

The 85th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 24.